CSI: Christmas
by csi-87
Summary: Christmas themed cases for the team. Based around the time of seasons 6-7, with some GSR scenes. Hope you enjoy -x-
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer- Me again! Lol, it's been a while. Just to verify, I don't own any part of CSI.

Chapter 1 – A festive callout

"What's going on? I, I don't understand. Why are you doing this?"

"Oh, that's simple. You deserve it."

"Wait, please, please!"…

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Grissom pulled his field kit from his car and sighed. Even he found it hard to accept that crimes were committed at this time of year, during the festive season. He pulled up the yellow crime tape and stepped underneath it. The responsibility of this crime scene was now on his shoulders, and it seemed to get heavier every time and harder with every case. He had noticed it a lot with recent cases but hadn't voiced his concern as he knew Sara would worry and that wasn't what he wanted. So, as normal he took on the burden and remained silent, rubbing his temples.

"I need a holiday." Images of walking hand in hand with Sara around a snowy Paris drifted happily into his head, but he had to forget them at least until after the case was solved. He looked up at the house he had finally reached, realising how deliberately slow he had been walking.

"Hey Jim." He called as he met Brass on the driveway leading up the steps to the front door.

"Hey Gil. You're gonna like this." He led Grissom into the living room. Grissom looked up and then around at the room in silent awe.

A big fir tree decorated heavily with lights and ornaments and which would have once sat proudly in the corner was now lying in a glass and tinsel frenzy, encompassing everything in its way. The ornate fireplace was covered in more lights with stockings pinned to the front. The rest of the room was decorated in a similar fashion, lights and tinsel wrapping themselves around every surface like boa constrictors.

"What do you think?" Brass asked holding back a snigger.

"That I feel like I'm standing in Santa's grotto." He looked around and frowned.

"You told me this was an unknown death. Where's the body?"

"Wanna take a wild guess?" Brass asked before tapping his foot next to an arm protruding out of the tree foliage.

"Killed by his own creation. Tragic." Grissom commented, suppressing a small smile.

"Jim, has anyone been in here?"

"Only the first officer. Why?"

"Because there are marks in the carpet that look like a struggle took place." He crouched down and picked up a sample of dirt from the carpet.

"And this?"

"That's not ours. My guy walked around the edge, he even had those bags on his shoes."

David arrived and glanced around the room in confusion. Grissom pointed at the tree and David replied with a bewildered stare. He knelt reluctantly by the arm and began to tug at the tree. Brass turned to Grissom, an eyebrow raised.

"Jim, you'd better help him out. We don't want two victims."

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Grissom joined David by the body once the tree had been removed safely from the room.

"What have we got David?"

"Caucasian male. Early 40s. Contusions to his face and a slight discolouration around the neck. There are no defensive wounds." He turned the body onto its side. "Blow to the back of the head, C.O.D could be blunt force trauma, but most likely strangulation, but I can't be certain. From liver temp I'd say he's been dead a maximum of 2 hours."

Grissom stood up frowning and studied the room around him again. He shook his head slowly and knelt beside the body again.

"Come on Gil, what's up? You've got the "something's not right" look on your face." Brass smiled.

"It's a relatively undisturbed room; there are marks on the carpet to suggest a struggle, a victim that has bruises on his face to suggest being beaten. Add to that the blow on his head, and no defensive wounds and the victim ending up squashed under a Christmas tree. Then yeah something's definitely not right. And these marks" Grissom pointed to the victims neck "these suggest he was strangled before his encounter with the tree. But these don't look like anything I've ever seen." He pulled out a swab and wiped it gently over the gold residue on the victim's neck.

"These marks are only on the front of his neck. He can't have been strangled just by a persons hands" he put his hands together to illustrate strangling "he would have thumb indentations where the windpipe is.

"Well maybe they used something? A rope?" Brass suggested.

"Possibly, but there would be ligature marks. These are very different. I can't see the murder weapon."

"Sorry to disappoint you Gil, but not all criminals are stupid. Some of them clean up after themselves."

Grissom replied with a sarcastic smile and looked across at the empty void where the tree would have been.

"Well I've found the cause of our blunt force trauma." Brass looked over and Grissom swung the torch beam over a shelf at head height, the corner of which was covered in blood. He photographed the shelf and began swabbing the blood.

"Er Gil? You wanna take a look at this."

Grissom walked over to Brass who was pointing to the cream carpet. At first Grissom couldn't see anything but after concentrating intently he bent down and picked up the tooth lying next to the sofa. He looked at the bindle thoughtfully.

"Who found him and his lumberjack routine?"

"A 911 call was logged at this address. A muffled voice, a shout, a lot of static and then a dead line."

"We need that recording Jim."

"Detective Brass?" David called out, still crouched by the body.

"Yeah?"

"I've found the victim's wallet." David walked across the room and handed it to Brass. He read it and gave a laugh of disbelief.

"Gil Grissom, say hello to Jack Frost."

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That's the first chapter, hope you're enjoying it! More to some soon! -x-


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer-I do not own any part of CSI. I also don't own the songs "Let it snow", or "White Christmas" they're…I dunno whose they are, the versions I have are Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby. Whoever owns them, I DON'T! Lol

Chapter 2 – The Holly and the Ivy

"Oh the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful. And since we've no place to go, let it snow let it snow let it snow." She sang softly as she folded the bits of paper in half.

"Hey Sara, what you up to?" Warrick asked as he entered the empty staff room.

"I'm putting the names together for our secret Santa." Warrick opened the fridge, took a sniff and closed it again, laughing.

"There are 6 of us; it won't be much of a secret."

"What about Brass, Sofia, Ecklie, Doc Robbins, David, Hodges and Archie?"

"Oh right. Yeah."

"Anyway, what's up?" She asked.

"Nick needs an extra pair of hands to help him process a crime scene." He paused. "I would go, but I've got some stuff to sort out with Tina. I was kinda hoping that you would be able to…" Sara nodded.

"No problem. That's cool."

"Really? Great, thanks a lot Sara, I owe you big." She held out the plastic dish.

"Well you can start by picking a name."

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She stepped out of the car and sauntered slowly to the house. She stopped a few feet behind him.

"May your days be merry and bright. And may all your Christmases be white." He muttered to himself.

"You know what the possibility of a white Christmas in Vegas actually is?" He turned, smiled and shook his head.

"Neither do I, but it's gotta be rare. I heard you needed some help." Sara walked forwards and Nick held the yellow crime tape up for her to duck underneath.

"Only just got here myself." He commented, picking up his field kit and heading up into the hallway of the house. Sofia was standing in the large living room by David who was kneeling by a female body. Sara put her kit down and took off her woolly hat and gloves. She slipped her latex gloves on, grabbed her camera and joined Sofia, who was joined by Nick shortly after.

"Holly Jenkins. 20 years old. Found by the housekeeper Maria Rodriguez. Holly's twin sister Ivy has been taken to hospital; she's being treated for shock." Sara removed the camera from her eye.

"Holly and Ivy?" She asked in disbelief, glancing at Nick.

"Uh-huh. We're trying to get in touch with friends, tutors from college, anyone who knew Holly."

"What about the girl's parents?"

"Mom died a while back. We're trying to locate the dad." She gave a small smile before entering the hallway to join an officer who was questioning the housekeeper.

"Hiya David."

"Hi Sara, Nick. Busy night for you guys huh?"

"What do you mean?" Sara asked.

"Grissom's got a strangle or blunt force trauma victim over the other side of town. I've been up and down the strip all night." He smiled shyly at Sara, who smiled back.

"So what can you tell us about the **body** David?" Nick asked, amused.

"Oh right. No defensive wounds and no sign of blunt force trauma. No signs to indicate strangulation either. I'm afraid till we get her back and do the autopsy, the COD is unknown. Time of death I'd say 4-6 hours ago."

"Thanks David. We'll let you know when we've finished with the body." Nick replied.

"Two girls; were born together, lived together. But Holly dies alone. Why?" Sara asked rhetorically shaking her head before bending to look at the victim. Nick began to examine the room while Sara remained with the body.

"Holly has a red substance on her lips. Could be blood?" She took some photos, retrieved her kit and took a swab.

"It's _**not**_ blood."

Nick looked around at the swab, freshly applied with luminal that hadn't turned pink as expected. She shuffled around the victim to get a better look.

"Well she's wearing pyjamas. She was on her way to bed."

"Something, someone, obviously stopped her." Nick commented.

"A burglar?" She suggested.

Nick looked around the room.

"Widescreen TV, expensive stereo, decorative silver. All still here. If it was a burglar, it wasn't a very clever one. Besides, the rest of the household would have woken up." He turned his attention to the coffee table.

"I've got a glass with milk inside. There's something else, looks like a trace of something else in her drink. Maybe she was poisoned?" He took a plastic jar from his kit and drained the liquid into it. He dusted the glass and several fingerprints illuminated on the surface. He lifted them carefully and added them to his increasing evidence.

"Well if it was poison, or even a sedative it would explain why she has no defensive wounds. Although she does have scratches around her mouth." Sara observed, the blinding light from her flash lighting the room for a brief moment. "I wouldn't say self inflicted. Maybe she was suffocated?"

Nick studied the photos on the wall and called over his shoulder

"This just doesn't make any sense. There's a mysterious powder in a drink on the table which she may or may not have drunk suggesting poison. But at the same time she's got scratches on her face suggesting suffocation. I know Grissom says follow the evidence, but what happens when it contradicts itself?"

Sara gave a small smile to herself before shrugging her shoulders. He sighed and walked across the room into the hallway where the housekeeper was now sitting alone.

"Maria, my name is Nick stokes, I'm from the Las Vegas crime lab. We wanna find out who did this to Holly but we need your help. Is it cool to ask you a few questions?"

She nodded. "Si."

"Cool. Can you tell me what you did before we arrived?"

"Well, I always get here at about six thirty every morning to do cleaning, tidying and get breakfast made. I came in this morning and headed towards the kitchen to start breakfast. I saw the light on in the living room. I walked in and saw senorita Holly." She put her hand to her mouth and began to cry.

"What happened then?"

She took a few breaths to regain her composure.

"I ran upstairs and woke senorita Ivy. She came down and I phoned the police. She just stood there looking at her sister."

"Is there anyone you know of that would want to harm or kill Holly?"

She sniffed and fiddled with her hands.

"No. We all loved her; she was like my own daughter. She had a lot of friends too."

Nick looked over his shoulder and pointed before looking back.

"There are quite a few photos in there of the girls. I'm guessing the man in those is their father?"

She nodded again.

"Does he live here?"

"Si."

"Where is he?"

"I don't know Mr Stokes. He tells me he won't be back for dinner and sometimes he says not to bother making him breakfast. He may have gone to work early; sometimes he goes to the gym. He hadn't come back when I went home last night."

"Were you the last person up last night?"

"No senor; Holly and Ivy were watching a horror film. I hate those films and I think Ivy did too but Holly loved them so…" She drifted off as tears came to her eyes again.

"Ok, well if you can give Mr Jenkins' work details to that officer over there that would be a great help." He gave a kind smile, and then rejoined Sara.

"Any more luck?"

"What are you expecting? A note saying 'I killed Holly.' Signed Mr Killer?" She laughed. She bent down and picked up a stack of files. "I found the stash of the families financial files." She handed them to Nick one by one. "Deeds to the house, the probate documents for Rachel-the mom- AND the family collection of wills. Even the twins had them. A nice bit of light reading."

Nick looked around.

"So all valuables are still here, no blood pools to suggest the Vic was beaten to death, no suicide note, nothing to suggest a disturbance in the room."

"Except for the fact that a young girl is lying dead in the middle of it." She commented sadly. "I'm gonna take a look upstairs." She disappeared up into the master bedroom.

"I'll put these in the car shall I?" Nick muttered sarcastically. He raised his eyebrows in greeting as he passed David who was re-entering the room with a body bag.

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Whew, what a long chapter! My fingers cramped up from typing so much!


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer- I do not own any part of CSI. There I said it, and now I'm going off to sulk.

Chapter 3 – Sleepless nights

"So Grissom, I heard someone killed Jack Frost? It doesn't mean Christmas is cancelled does it?" Catherine grinned at Grissom who gave a small smile and then stifled a yawn.

"Hey, why _are_ you still here? Your shift finished hours ago." She asked.

"I'm pulling a double. It was your night off last night, what are _you_ doing here?"

"Oh, Ecklie asked me if I could come in. Apparently, day shift have got a back log building up on their evidence. So I've been pulled in to help. Besides, Lindsey's been on about this "unbelievably cool" dress and shoes that she wants for the Christmas dance at her school. So I need all the overtime I can get."

"Well Sara's around here somewhere, she could probably help you out."

"No, she's out in the field with Nick." She replied, chewing a nail.

"But I told Warrick to go with Nick."

"Yeah well apparently he had to talk to Tina or something, I dunno."

He gave an exasperated sigh.

"Anyway, your case? What've you got?" She asked changing the subject.

Brass poked his head around the door.

"Hey Cath. Gil we just got a call. Someone's got some information on the murder."

Grissom stood up. "Ok, I'm coming. See you later Cath."

"Don't wear yourself out!" She called after him.

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Sara pulled back the covers on the bed and switched the UV light on. She swept the beam over the bed.

"Nothing." She commented disappointingly.

Nick stood up from crouching by the dressing table.

"Maybe he cleans up after himself?" He gave a small laugh.

"Yeah but this is a bit extreme. It's like the bed hasn't been slept in."

"Well Maria did say he hadn't come home by the time she went home. I'm gonna have a look around the other rooms."

She was left alone, searching through drawers. She stopped by the dresser and picked a picture frame up. A young man and woman's faces smiled back at her.

"The happy couple."

"Hey Sara? You might wanna come and have a look at this."

She replaced the frame and walked across the hall. The bathroom was in darkness except for the light of Nick's torch. She stepped closer. In his hand was a bottle of pills.

"I found these in the cabinet, looks like Mr Charlie Jenkins has trouble sleeping." Sara commented.

"If these match what was in that glass, it looks like we may have our murderer." He replied.

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"I'm Detective Brass; this is Gil Grissom from the crime lab. And you are?"

"Peter Potter."

Brass gave a small glance in Grissom's direction, biting his top lip to stop a smile from emerging.

"I know. My parents had a sense of humour." Peter sighed.

Grissom turned his head to look at the house next door surrounded in yellow tape and looked back.

"Mr Potter, we were next door at your neighbour's house for several hours. Why didn't you contact us earlier?" He asked.

"I was asleep. And I woke up to all the noise outside my house."

"Can we come in Mr Potter?" Brass asked. Peter stood out of the way to let them in. They sat awkwardly on the squidgy sofa.

"Can I get you gentlemen anything to drink?"

Grissom shook his head and Brass replied with a brief "no". Then continued the conversation

"Mr Potter why didn't you tell anyone you had made the 911 call?"

Peter frowned deeply.

"What 911 call? I didn't call the cops; I told you I was asleep. I thought it was her coming back."

"I'm sorry?"

"When I woke up this morning. She was round last night, well her car was. She purposely parks in front of my driveway. I've argued with her but I've given up because it doesn't make any difference."

"Mr Frost had a visitor round last night? Who is she?" Grissom asked.

"Dunno, but she had a mouth as wide as the Nile though."

"You need to be more specific Peter; we need hair colour, clothes she's worn, any details you can think of."

"I'm not very good at remembering things. She might have had brown hair. Short. Or was it long?"

Brass rolled his eyes and slid forward on the sofa.

"Mr Potter, the woman you've seen is a suspect in a murder investigation. Now unless you want us to think you're lying and start suspecting you, I think you'd better dig a little deeper into you're memory huh?"

"Uh, black, she had black shoulder length hair. Late 30s I'd say but I'm really not sure."

"Peter, you said this woman always parks in front of your house"

"My driveway yeah."

"Yeah well, can you give us a description of the car?" Grissom asked.

"Oh sure. Black Merc, personalised plates, the ones where you can just about read the letters. I wrote it down in case I decided to report her." He went to his desk, pulled out a pad, ripped out the top sheet and handed it to Brass.

"Shouldn't be too difficult to run that through the DMV database." He muttered to Grissom, whose mind seemed to be elsewhere.

"Do you build models Mr Potter?" Grissom asked oddly.

"Yeah, it's a hobby. But how did you know?"

"You've got some gold under your fingernails. I'm gonna need to take a sample. And I need you to open your mouth."

"Why?" Peter replied. As he did, Grissom put a swab in and ran it over the inside of Peter's cheek and glanced at his teeth.

"We'll need to take a bite impression from you mouth."

"What for?"

"It's in regards to some evidence we've found."

"Well I don't feel comfortable about doing that."

"You will once we get a warrant." Brass threatened. Peter sighed.

"Fine. I guess it'll show in my favour that I cooperated." He opened his mouth and Grissom directed him until he had an exact replica of Peter's teeth.

"Thank you, that wasn't too difficult, was it?" Grissom smiled as he ran a swab under Peter's fingernails. He held up the capped swabs and the bite impression.

"These may help prove your innocence."

"But I didn't think I was a suspect."

"Oh everyone's a suspect until the evidence tells us otherwise Mr Potter."

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Well, as with most of this story, this chapter had a lot of rewrites, the neighbour was originally Dennis Potter, who was from London and moved to Vegas. But that's all in the past now. Way, way in the past.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer – I do not own any part of CSI. And I mention it in the chapter, there are no lyrics but I don't own "All I want for Christmas is you", that was Mariah Carey's.

Chapter 4 – Getting in to the spirit of things

She balanced her takeaway coffee in one hand and her evidence bags in the other. She entered the room and dumped everything on the examination table.

"Ok." She began, stifling a yawn. She took a sip of coffee then searched around the room and switched the radio on. Faint strains of "All I want for Christmas is you" drifted through the room, making her smile to herself. She sorted through the bags and set to work at emptying the bottle of pills and fingerprinting the exterior.

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"Hodges, Sara found this substance at the crime scene. We need you to find out what it is."

"Hm, have you checked it's not blood?"

Nick glared at Hodges.

"Of course we have."

"Ok, just checking. Add it to my already long list of things to do."

"I also found a white powder in with some milk; need to know what that is as well."

"Yeah, just leave it there. At this rate I might be finished by New Years." Hodges mumbled.

Nick rolled his eyes and left the room.

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Grissom's head lolled forward slightly before jerking back again. The computer bleeped and his eyes snapped open. The printer whirred in to life and shot the details of the Mercedes at him. He picked them up and tried to focus on them.

"Hm." He remarked to the empty room.

His eyelids became heavy again, but he forced himself out of his chair. His beeper buzzed in his pocket and he left the room to answer the page.

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"Ok so Greg, just put your hand in there and pick one out."

Greg picked up the slip of paper and glanced at it before stuffing it into his jeans pocket when realising someone had entered the lab.

"Oh er hi Grissom."

"Am I interrupting something?"

Sara gave a small smile to herself before turning around to face him.

"So yeah, I thought, because there are so many of us in the lab now, that instead of having to buy loads of presents, if we all do secret Santa we'll only have to buy one."

He raised an eyebrow at her.

"Haven't you got things to do on your case?"

"Actually my evidence is with trace, I'm waiting for AFIS to start kicking some names out and I'm waiting for the autopsy reports." She stretched her arm out in front of her.

"Greg's just done his. Now it's your turn."

He gave a small smile. After um-ing and ah-ing dramatically he pulled one of the pieces out with his fingers while casually brushing the rest of his hand against the back of hers. She bit her lip to stop herself grinning and Grissom opened his slip.

"Perfect." His smile began to spread across his lips.

"Greg, I'm just about to get the autopsy report off Doc Robbins on my vic. I thought you might want to come along, help me out with the case?" Grissom suggested.

Greg's eyes widened in surprise.

"Really? I mean yeah, sure that would be good." He gave a small grin to Sara before heading out into the corridor, leaving Sara and Grissom alone. Grissom gazed at Sara for a few seconds then turned to leave. He put his hand on the door frame and turned back.

"That was a good idea Sara. Now I'll only have to buy presents for two people at work." He smiled warmly at Sara before following Greg to the morgue, leaving Sara to grin to herself.

Her pager beeped, snapping her out of her reverie and she walked out of the room.

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She pushed the door open and walked inside.

"What a coincidence. Hiya Doc."

Greg laughed and Grissom suppressed a smile.

"Where's Nick?"

"Oh he's on the phone with Sofia and he's gonna get our results from trace."

Doc Robbins walked over to Sara's victim leaving Greg and Grissom standing alongside theirs.

"Holly Jenkins-interesting victim. I would have guessed overdose as COD, sent a substance I found in her stomach to tox. But then there were the scratches around her mouth. They didn't make any sense until I opened her up and found this lodged in her throat." He handed her a metal dish. Sara looked at the dish then quickly back at him. He nodded in response to her expression.

"Are they sprigs of _holly_?"

"Uh-huh. If someone was trying to force it down her throat, they weren't bothered about doing a neat job. Hence the scratches. COD is asphyxia due to choking."

"Doped and choked." She commented putting the dish down.

"Sounds symbolic." Grissom observed and Sara raised an eyebrow.

"Holly is killed by Holly. It sounds like someone's trying to make a statement saying she was killed by her own hand." Sara nodded in thoughtful agreement. Doc Robbins walked over to Grissom's victim.

"I'm afraid your body isn't as intriguing."

"Thanks." Grissom replied sarcastically.

"Although originally there were four possible CODs. Two asphyxias and two blunt force traumas."

Grissom raised an eyebrow.

"What?"

"Well first there was the bruising on his face- possible blunt force trauma, but there weren't enough hits to cause serious damage, maybe just left your victim slightly dazed.

Then there was the blow to the back of the head, a typical stamp abrasion. Looks quite heavy and it's a deep laceration. But again, from where it was placed on his head, it wouldn't have been fatal."

"I found blood on the corner of a shelf; he obviously hit his head at some point. So what else was there?"

"The asphyxia- there were the marks around his neck, not typical for strangulation, more like hanging. Other than the residue on his neck I found some fragments stuck to the inside of his mouth. I'm guessing that whatever was used, he came in contact with and inhaled it. However, the petechial haemorrhaging in his eyes disproves our theory- if someone is hung, petechial haemorrhaging doesn't occur. This suggests strangulation again."

"And what was theory number four?"

"Simple. He was crushed under the tree, unable to breathe and died of asphyxia." Grissom stood bewildered.

"You're telling me that this guy was punched, hit his head on a shelf and was strangled but he died from being crushed by the Christmas tree?"

"Our two theories about strangulation and hanging cancel each other out. Basically, yeah the tree killed him. The other events wouldn't have helped; he would have been disorientated, dizzy and drowsy. He didn't have it easy."

Grissom put his head in his hand and muttered

"Have you got the material found in his mouth?" He was handed a metal dish and used his tweezers to pick a strand up. He held up his magnifying glass to get a better look. Sara joined them and she leaned in closer with Greg.

"Metallic strip but not made of metal. Plastic or some synthetic material?" Grissom shrugged. Sara pulled the magnifying glass out of his hand and leant over the body, paying particular attention to the victim's neck. She straightened up and smiled.

"What?" Grissom asked.

"I know what that is. I'll be right back." She left the room abruptly and Grissom raised an eyebrow. She returned with a piece of tinsel which she waved in front of her like a banner.

"Tinsel?" Greg asked confused.

"Yeah, those fragments make up everyone's favourite Christmas decoration."

Grissom tutted.

"Of course! If someone had been holding it for a long time, it would have got warm and caused the residue to rub off. And that's why the marks on the vic's neck are so unusual."

"What's the best way to hide a piece of evidence?" Sara asked.

"In plain sight." Greg replied.

"Greg, I need you to go back to the vic's house and bring every bit of gold tinsel back to the lab for analysis. Cath will help you out." Grissom instructed and Greg nodded and left.

Sara bagged up the holly and gave a small smile to Grissom, raising her eyebrow slightly before leaving the room as well.

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Well, a bit of a long one, but I had quite a bit of stuff to get through -x-


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer – I do not own any part of CSI. I'm kinda glad I don't, I mean otherwise I'd know everything before it happened. And that's no fun.

Chapter 5 – Full of surprises

"Come on, everyone is doing it."

"I'm sure they are Miss Sidle, but they obviously don't have paperwork to finish."

"It'll take like a second. Pick a name, buy a present."

Ecklie turned the file over that he was reading and began making notes.

"I do get the concept of secret Santa." He muttered. Sara pondered quietly before commenting nonchalantly

"Sofia's doing it."

Ecklie sighed, raised his head and took a slip. Catherine knocked on the door and Ecklie pleaded through his eyes for help. Sara held her hand out and Catherine grinned.

"I love Christmas. Well officially it's all for Lindsey, you know the whole OTT thing. Unofficially I'm a big kid."

"Did you have something to tell me?" Ecklie asked impatiently.

"Huh what? Oh, no." Catherine replied. Ecklie rolled his eyes.

"Oh, but Nick was looking for you Sara, he's got something on your case."

Ecklie sighed with relief.

"Ok, I've just finished now anyway. Just remember to bring your present to the Christmas party Ecklie."

"But I'm not going to the Christmas party."

"But you've got to! You won't be able to give your gift or get one otherwise. Who knows what you'll get?" Sara turned to leave with Catherine.

"Oh. Saying that, I don't think anyone's sorted the Christmas party out yet."

"I'll do it! I've got loads of ideas." Catherine replied immediately. "See I was thinking…"

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Greg walked up to the front door of the house, stopping to look at the activities of the neighbour before showing his badge to the officer on duty and stepping inside.

He walked down the hallway looking in each room.

"'Greg bring every bit of gold tinsel back to the lab.' He's got to be kidding me." He glanced up the stairwell, following the gold tinsel wound around the banister.

"I wish I had stayed in the lab."

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Sara eventually bumped into Nick.

"So what did Sofia say?"

"She spoke to Holly's tutor at college and her closest friends. They all had alibis that check out and none of them knew who would want to kill her or why someone would want to."

"Anything else?" She asked.

"Yeah, the red substance we originally thought was blood but wasn't is…"

"Holly berry juice." She replied.

"How did you know?"

"Doc Robbins found a lot more in her system. Someone stuffed holly sprigs down her throat, choking her to death." She held the bag up to show him.

"Man that's harsh. Oh, they finally got hold of Mr Jenkins, they're bringing him in for interrogation; I thought we could have a chat with him?"

"Definitely. Any word on twin sister Ivy?"

"Still being looked after by the nurses; Sofia's gonna keep us updated. As soon as she's available we can see her."

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"Run through it again." Grissom squinted hard, trying intently to hear a sound, a clue that would lead to the identity of the anonymous caller. He looked across at Archie who shook his head sadly.

"I've enhanced it as much as possible. Without any speech there's not much to determine. That shout is definitely male, but that could have been the victim. Sorry."

Grissom lowered his head and exhaled deeply.

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"Mr Jenkins, my name is Sara Sidle and this is Nick Stokes, we're from the crime lab. We need to ask you a few questions regarding the death of your daughter Holly."

He lifted his bloodshot eyes to look at her.

"Ok."

"Where were you between 12 and 2 last night?"

"At home, asleep." Sara gave a sideways glance at Nick.

"Did you notice anything unusual when you left for work this morning?"

He shook his head and Sara bowed hers.

"Lets try this again Mr Jenkins. Your housekeeper found your daughter dead on the living room floor when she arrived for work this morning. Are you telling me that you didn't see her lying there when you left the house?"

He fidgeted anxiously.

"Look Charlie, we wanna find out who did this to Holly. But dude, if you're not telling us something then we won't be able to help." Nick smiled.

"Ok, I wasn't at home last night. I stayed at my girlfriend's. All evening." He looked away ashamedly.

"Then why didn't you tell us? I'm a criminalist, I'm not here to judge you man." Nick replied.

"I didn't want her involved in this."

"Unfortunately Mr Jenkins, she's involved in this whether you want her to be or not, because you are." Sara stated matter of factly. "I'm guessing that neither of your daughters knew?"

"No, I never told them, it would tear them apart. Their mom died 7 years ago, but neither of them has really got over it. It wouldn't have been the best idea introducing them to my girlfriend. Especially it being Dana."

Sara crossed one leg over the other and nibbled on the end of her pen. Nick leaned forward.

"Did the girls already know her?" Charlie nodded.

"She's been my secretary for, well years; she became a close friend to me and Rachel."

Sara put her pen down.

"How did your wife die Mr Jenkins?" He ran a hand through his greying hair.

"She died in a car crash. It was wet and the car slid across and hit a truck on the other side head on. She was with us one day and then gone the next."

"Mr Jenkins, we found some pills in your bathroom. Do you have problems sleeping?"

"Sometimes. I used them a lot when Rachel first died. It's been 7 years but some days it feels like yesterday. So sometimes I still take them."

"Did your daughters or anyone else know you had them?"

"It's not something you really broadcast. That every time you try to sleep your dead wife's face appears in front of your eyes."

Sara looked at the man sitting in front of her and knew exactly how he felt.

"Is there anyone you can think of that would want to do this to your daughter?"

"No, but someone must have wanted to, which makes me feel sick. I loved my wife so much; my children are a living reminder of her and now Holly's been taken from me as well. Why us? Why the hell would someone do this to our family?" He put his head in his hands and sobbed freely.

"We don't know Mr Jenkins." Nick replied sadly and Sara bowed her head.

----------

Quite a lot of short scenes in this chapter, but its all needed for the plot. Putting "dude" or "man" in Nick's sentences, aren't needed, but I wanted it a bit more interesting than "she said, he said" -x-


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer – I do not own any part of CSI or the song "The power of love", that's Frankie goes to Hollywood's.

Chapter 6 – Misleading leads

Greg walked down the corridor cradling a large cardboard box in his arms.

"Hey Greg." Catherine peered into the box.

"Sara said I could do the Christmas party!"

"This isn't for the Christmas party. This is evidence from a case I'm working on with Grissom. He said bring back the tinsel but I didn't think he meant…"

"Want some help?" She asked.

"Yeah there's about another 20 boxes in the back of my car that need to be brought to the lab."

She walked towards reception and bumped into Grissom coming out of his office.

"Hey do you know if Greg's back yet?"

"Yeah he is, but I wouldn't go talk to him if I were you. Said something about tinsel?"

Grissom smiled.

"Ah. I'll catch him later on."

He turned the corner and saw Sara and Nick deep in discussion in the staff room. Nick mouthed a silent "hey" as Grissom entered and made himself a coffee.

"How's your case going?" He asked when they had finished talking.

"Well the vic's dad didn't tell us anything we didn't already know." Nick commented.

"Apart from the fact that his wife died in a road accident and that his secret girlfriend has been hanging around the family for some time. Possible motive, but why kill only one daughter?" She picked up her coffee and held it between her hands thoughtfully before taking a sip.

"You think she's got something to do with it?" Nick asked.

"Well, there's no evidence at the moment to put her there. But there's no evidence at the moment to put anybody there. We must be missing something." She shrugged her head and looked at Grissom.

"Anyway, how's your case going?"

"Hmm, no murder weapon, a tooth, dirt, possibly two suspects and a 911 call that is useless. Run through what you've got on your case."

Sara and Nick looked at him both wearing puzzled expressions. He shrugged.

"Maybe there's something you overlooked."

Nick sighed.

"Ok. Holly Jenkins was found by the housekeeper Maria Rodriguez. Twin sister Ivy was asleep at the time and dad Charlie was at his girlfriend's house"

"Dana Murray." Sara interjected.

"We found holly berry juice on Holly's lips which we later found out to be from the sprig of holly that had been used to choke her." Nick paused and Sara continued.

"We found a glass at the scene containing milk and traces of what we suspected to be a sedative, which was also found in Holly's stomach"

"Oh yeah, Hodges confirmed that the substance was a prescription sedative, same as the trace found in her stomach" Nick cut in.

"And the same ones we found in the bathroom, prescribed to Charlie?" Sara asked. Nick nodded.

"Uh huh. But those prints on the bottle didn't match Charlie's."

"Yeah, and I didn't get a hit off AFIS either." Sara's excited expression fell from her face and they sat dejectedly.

Something in the back of Grissom's mind twitched and his mouth fell open in disbelief.

"Jenkins?" He asked.

Nick looked at Sara before answering uncertainly

"Yeah."

"Go through their names again."

"Ok. There was the housekeep…"

"No, just the family members."

"Holly, Ivy and Charlie." Nick replied, still unsure of the relevance.

"No, that wasn't it."

"Rachel was the mom." Sara offered.

"That was it! Rachel Jenkins!" Grissom smiled widely and Sara smiled confusedly at his response.

"You wanna explain?"

"The friendly DIY neighbourhood watchman living next to my vic mentioned the vic had a female visitor that kept parking in front of his drive and not the vic's. I ran the plates through the DMV database and guess whose name popped up?"

"Rachel Jenkins?" Nick replied in disbelief.

"But she's been dead for 7 years. You got a description?" Sara asked.

"Late 30s. Shoulder length black hair."

Sara looked at Nick who shrugged his shoulders and shook his head.

"That doesn't match either twin or the housekeeper. It's gotta be Dana the girlfriend then. If she's been seeing Charlie, I'm sure he would have let her borrow the car."

Nick's phone beeped and he read the new message.

"Sofia's found Dana. I think we've definitely gotta talk to her. Being the family friend, she must have known both girls relatively well. Maybe she can think of someone who would want Holly dead?" Nick suggested.

"Why don't you take Grissom with you?" Sara offered.

"What?" Grissom asked, aware that he was being mentioned.

"Well she is linked to your case as well."

"I thought you were gonna come with us. What are you gonna do then?" Nick asked her.

"Go back to the house, see if I can find this mystery car and bring it back to the lab. I wanna take another look around the house. Something's still not right." She drained her coffee and grabbed her coat.

"Let me know if anything comes up. Have fun."

"Shall we?" Grissom stood up. "I wanna get out of here before Greg finds me."

----------

Greg put the CD in, pressed play and cranked the volume up.

"I'll protect you from the hooded claw; keep the vampires from your door…"

Catherine looked up.

"Uh, very festive Greg."

He grinned then went back to his piece of tinsel. He untwisted it delicately and studied it carefully. He grabbed a swab and carefully wiped a sample. He prepared a slide and placed it under the microscope.

"What you got?"

He squinted into the microscope and sighed.

"Nothing." He stood back and took the whole surface of the tinsel in.

"This isn't the murder weapon, the tinsel's all flat and twisted out of shape in the middle, but I didn't pull any epithelials off it. And that's the last piece." He sighed again.

"I'd better tell Grissom."

----------

I had to put Power of Love in there, I like it, and it's dark and doesn't really have any relevance to Christmas, apart from the fact that the music video is the nativity scene, so it's classed as a Christmas song! Lol –x-


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer – I do not own any part of CSI.

Chapter 7 – Discovery

Sara walked around the eerily still room, but she also welcomed the silence, she could think better.

Her gloved hand brushed along the edge of a table. Her hand tapped a pen by mistake and it rolled onto the floor. She bent down to pick it up and noticed a small red dot on the floor.

She frowned and crouched closer. She thought back to when it was still occupied by Holly's body.

"Why didn't we see this?" She said aloud. She turned her head and held her arms out to judge the distance.

"Her arm would have been shielding it." She collected a sample and tested it.

"Blood?" She looked around puzzled. She stood up and walked out into the hall. She carefully made her way upstairs and entered the master bedroom. She remembered looking in here for the first time just hours ago and not seeing anything of interest.

"So much pain and sadness in this house."

_A lot like mine_.

She sat in the wicker chair and put her head in her hands, exhaling slowly.

----------

"Hi, can I help you?" A woman asked. Instantly, Nick and Grissom noticed the woman's shoulder length jet black hair and gave each other a knowing look.

"Yeah, we're looking for Dana Murray?"

"You're looking at her. Oh my god" she pulled them aside "you're not the strippers for the Christmas party are you?"

Nick gave an embarrassed smile and Grissom raised an eyebrow at him.

"I'm Gil Grissom, this is Nick stokes, we're from the Las Vegas crime lab." He pointed to Nick "He might be interested, but I just wanna ask you a few questions."

Her face fell.

"Oh. We can talk in the empty board room down the end of the hall."

"Good 'cause I don't like an audience." He gave a jerk of his head and a wry smile before following her down the hall.

"Holly's dead? Oh God. What about Ivy? Is Charlie ok? I wonder why he hasn't phoned me."

"Probably because he's been talking to us all day. When was the last time you saw Charlie?"

"Last night, he came round about 7pm. We had dinner, watched a movie and" she looked at Nick "went to bed."

Grissom looked between them.

"And when was the last time you saw Holly, Miss Murray?" Grissom asked.

"Oh, um that would be last Sunday. Me and the girls went shopping together then we had dinner back at the house with Charlie."

"Trying to rid yourself of some of the guilt of being the secret girlfriend?" She turned to face Grissom.

"It wasn't the best decision I've made in my life. But it was for the sake of the girls that we didn't have an open relationship."

"I suppose it's easier to be their friend than try to be their mother right?"

"Mr Grissom, **no-one** could take the place of Rachel. I learnt that a long time ago."

----------

Sara smiled at all of the funny faces they were pulling in the photos; from these she was given snapshots of the sisters personalities, and which had been confirmed by Sofia speaking to her tutor and friends.

Holly was the quieter one, preferring to shy away from the photographer's lens, whereas Ivy seemed to do anything and everything to be right in the middle of the attention.

She opened a drawer in a small bedside unit and saw a pink book lying there. She carefully lifted it out and opened it to the first page. It was dated two and a half weeks previous. She closed the book quickly.

"I can't look at this." She laughed.

"If the others were here they'd think I was stupid. If the others were here I wouldn't be talking to myself." She gingerly opened Holly's journal and flicked through it. Odd pages had been torn out leaving half of an entry.

She put the book in a bag and looked over at the other bed. She tried the unit beside the bed but it was empty. She gave a small smile as she lifted the corner of the mattress.

"No-one ever finds it if you're the one who makes the bed." She picked up the white book covered in purple butterflies and opened this one more boldly.

She sped through several entries, general things happening at college or with Ivy's friends. She stopped speed reading.

"Dear diary, she's doing it again. She won't leave me alone, she's like a rash. I try to ignore it, but she's constantly trying to be like mom. That bitch will **never** be like mom. Mom used to speak to her all of the time, about everything, including their marriage. We weren't supposed to know, but I sat on the stairs every night and listened to them talk. Mom's gone now, and I'm left with her. Dad won't listen and Holly shuts it out. How can they just ignore it? Why can't dad see that….dad's coming, I've gotta go."

Sara paused and flicked the page eagerly.

----------

"You're gonna have to come with us for further questioning Miss Murray." Grissom opened the door and beckoned the officer into the room.

"What? What have I done? That's ok buddy, I can walk by myself thanks, I don't need any help. I wanna know what I've done before you march me outta here."

"You neglected to mention Miss Murray that around the time of Holly's death last night you visited Jack Frost who was also found dead this morning." Grissom stated.

Dana's head shot up and her eyes widened.

"Jack's dead? No, no. I didn't see him last night, I saw him the night before. He's gone. No, oh God no." Tears welled in her eyes as she was led away.

Grissom frowned deeply and looked at Nick who wore a similar expression.

"Well I didn't expect that." Nick commented and Grissom shook his head.

----------

Grissom turned the corridor and came face to face with Greg.

"Hey Grissom."

"Greg."

"So I searched through your miles and miles of tinsel."

"And?"

"I didn't find the tinsel you were looking for." Grissom exhaled deeply and his head fell forward.

"The neighbour was decorating his house now as well; he was dragging a massive tree inside. It'll take him ages to decorate it." Greg commented.

"Decorations. That's it; we've looked at this all wrong."

Grissom frowned and turned away, lost in his own thoughts

"Thanks Greg." He muttered, before striding down the corridor, his mind elsewhere.

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Oooooooh! Lol, the bit about them being strippers still makes me chuckle lol -x-


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer – I do not own any part of CSI

Chapter 8 – Girl talk

She walked along the corridor, the keys to the Merc jangling in her hand. Her phone buzzed in her pocket.

"Sidle. Oh, hi. Really? Ok, I'll be right there."

The young girl opened her eyes slowly and Sara had to keep reminding herself that the girl lying in front of her wasn't the same one lying dead in the morgue.

"Who are you?" The girl mumbled.

"I'm Sara Sidle; I'm from the crime lab. I'm here to talk to you about your sister. I know this must be very difficult for you but we need you to give us any information that can help us find who did this to her."

"All I know is that I woke up because Maria was screaming. I went downstairs and there was Holly." Her eyes welled slightly.

"Has anyone hung around Holly or been to the house that you can think of that would want to harm her?"

"My sister was smart and everyone liked her. She didn't have any enemies. I'm still quite upset so if that's all?"

"Not quite." Sara produced a swab and fingerprinting kit. Ivy frowned and looked at Sara.

"Just so we know which prints and items belong to you at the house and rule you out as a suspect."

Ivy sighed.

"My sister's been killed. The nurse's have practically sucked all of my blood from me but sure, do what you want and prove what I already know. Just as long as it means I'll be left alone."

----------

Dana tugged at her skirt.

"Isn't your partner in crime gonna join us?"

"Unfortunately not, he's been called away." Nick replied and she shrugged her shoulders.

"Hey I wouldn't be here if I didn't have to be."

Nick tidied his papers before asking

"What was your relationship to Jack Frost?" Dana looked at him and he saw the same sadness as earlier.

"Erm well, we had been seeing each other for the last couple of months."

"While you were still with Charlie?"

"Hey, I care a lot about Charlie, but it seems like our relationship isn't going anywhere fast. He's always been protective over his girls. Which was fine in the beginning, but there's only so much fun you get outta nights in. Jack was…exciting."

"Tell me about Holly and Ivy."

"Holly was a real sweet kid. A girl who didn't realise or believe how pretty she was or how popular she was. Rachel was always going to a show or a tryout or a recital; she was proud of both of them. Ivy is…difficult to describe. She's very confident and loud but she's also closed off and cold when she chooses."

"Was she ever like that to Holly?"

"Sometimes. She acted like the older sister."

"Do you think either of them knew about your relationship with their dad?" She nodded vigorously.

"Holly definitely did. We had a long talk once, and she seemed fine with it, I didn't tell Charlie, I figured he might think I was trying to push his kids into accepting us as a couple. But it did seem kinda pointless to keep our relationship a secret anymore. I don't know if Ivy knew, it was hard to tell."

"Do you think either of them knew about your relationship with Jack?"

She paused for a few seconds.

"I don't think so. If Ivy did know, she would go straight to her dad and try to split us up."

"You said before you didn't see Jack yesterday."

"That's right; Charlie had already said he would come over. I still can't believe Jack's gone."

Nick began to pull items from his field kit. He pulled out the paper and ink pad.

"You already know I've been to Jack's place before. What's this for?"

"We need them for our record. And so that we can check them against any found at Jack's house and find his killer. I'll also need to take an impression of your teeth. We found a tooth at Jack's house."

Dana opened her mouth.

"I have all my teeth."

"Then you won't mind me taking an impression."

He put the completed impression in his kit. She put her feet up on the table and Nick frowned at the soles of her shoes remembering something Grissom had said.

"I'm gonna need to get a sample of that dirt on your shoe."

"Sure, knock yourself out."

He scraped the flakes into a bindle and then concentrated on her hands. He held her fingers and ran a swab under her nails.

"I didn't think it was a scientist's job to give people manicures." She smiled, a hint of sarcasm present in her voice.

He gave a small smile back before noticing a band aid wrapped around her finger. He wouldn't have thought anything of it, but he had got a call from Sara and he gently pulled it off and put it in a bindle.

"Hey!" She retorted angrily.

"Pretty nasty cut you've got there Miss Murray."

"It's just a paper cut." She shielded her hand protectively.

"We found a drop of blood by Holly's body."

Her head snapped up quickly at Nick.

"So that's what you think. That Holly may have known about my affair so I killed her and then killed Jack for absolutely no reason? I see that you haven't got any evidence to back up this deluded little theory of yours.

You know what? If you wanna accuse me of anything else that I didn't do, then I demand to have my lawyer present. Y'all can have a real nice chat with him." She turned away in her chair and folded her arms.

He took a long sigh and left the room. Dana looked over her shoulder at the closed door and looked at her hands. She put her head in her hands and cried heavily.

----------

Wow, I thought that scene with Dana was longer than that, it looked massive when it was written down!


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer – I do not own any part of CSI. I also don't own the song "Last Christmas", that's Wham's.

Chapter 9 – Missing links

Grissom looked uncertainly at Brass as they arrived at Jack's house once again. They glanced across at Peter in his newly decorated driveway to which he had added illuminated sheep, wise men and baby Jesus aglow in his manger.

"That wasn't here before was it?" Brass mumbled in confusion.

"No." Grissom looked around.

"It looks like he's mixed up the nativity scene with Noah's ark. I highly doubt that there were a pair of giraffes present at the birth of Christ."

Peter smiled at them, picking his way across the driveway.

"You've been busy." Grissom commented.

"It's a dedication to Jack. He always decorated his house so tastefully each year."

"So you made this mess?" Brass mumbled audibly only to Grissom's ears.

"Do you need any help gentlemen?"

"No, we're just going over a few things." Grissom explained before entering the house quickly followed by Brass.

"These guys are crazy." Brass muttered.

"They have a hobby, a passion. I like bugs but you don't call me crazy."

"Not to your face."

Grissom gave a small smile and began to walk across the living room. He reached the corner and held his arms out sideways and then lifted his head up to look at the ceiling. He studied the shelf and once again looked around.

"What's up?" Brass asked.

"He hit his head." Grissom mumbled.

"That's not important is it?"

"It wasn't, but it is now. Jim, this changes all of our theories completely."

----------

The computer bleeped.

"You've finally found something." Nick moved closer in his chair and frowned.

"That can't be right. Must've compared the wrong prints." He rechecked the evidence and became even more confused.

"What the hell is going on?"

----------

"Last Christmas I gave you my heart, but the very next day you gave it away. This year to save me from tears, I'll give it to somebody special."

"Hey Sara."

"Hey. I thought you were helping dayshift out?"

"They were doing fine without me. A love triangle where one man's dead and the other one has had his daughter murdered. Now that's something I had to see." Catherine opened the passenger door and sat inside.

"What you got?"

"Well there's no gold residue on the steering wheel, I'll dust it for prints. Maybe they can tell us a bit more." Sara began dusting the powder over the steering wheel lightly.

Catherine shone her torch around the interior. She looked up to the rear view mirror.

"Bingo!" Sara followed her gaze and saw the glimmer of gold, and laughed in disbelief

"She adjusted the mirror."

Catherine took a swab.

"Well if this matches the tinsel, it puts whoever drove the car at Jack Frost's house, squeezing the tinsel around his throat."

"At the moment, that's Dana." Sara replied. Catherine leant back in the chair and continued to look around for any other evidence. She looked down at the floor by Sara's feet.

"It's pretty dirty down there."

"Get a sample for me Cath. Grissom might need that." Sara replied as she began lifting the prints. They worked silently for a few minutes before Catherine broke the silence.

"So Sara, got any plans for Christmas?"

"I've lifted the prints; I should probably get these to the lab." She picked up the dirt sample and swab, smiled awkwardly at Catherine and walked out of the garage, leaving Catherine stunned.

Sara opened the door and bumped into Nick.

"Sara, we gotta talk about the case."

----------

Sara looked from Nick to Grissom.

"What's going on?"

"While you were processing the car and Grissom was still at Jack's, I had another chat with Dana. And then I got some of our test results back." He slid them across the table.

"There was a spot of blood on the holly sprig which matches the blood at the scene." He looked at Grissom.

"I told you I had good news. That was it."

"Judging by the expression on your face, this is gonna be followed by bad news?" She asked.

"The cases aren't linked. Dana isn't Jack's killer, and we doubt she's Holly's either."

She looked from Nick to Grissom.

"What do you mean? The relationship, the car, the gold residue, the blood, the diary entries." She frowned deeply and took a seat by the table. Nick slid a sheet across at her.

"The blood at our scene isn't hers."

"And she's admitted she had a relationship with Jack and we know she used the car. The gold residue Nick found under her nails was eye shadow." Grissom continued.

Sara put her hand to her forehead.

"What do we have then guys? I just pulled some prints and gold residue off the car. And I just got some dirt that I thought might match to the sample from Dana's shoes and to the Jenkins house 'cause they had a dirt path. Dunno what good that'll do now."

"All it'll do is confirm that Dana visited the Jenkins house, picked up some dirt, transferred it to the car when she used it and then transferred it to Jack's house when she visited. It'll confirm our theory." Grissom suggested.

"Great, that's really gonna help find Holly's killer." Sara muttered.

Grissom looked at Nick who shrugged his shoulders.

"Well I've gotta go, Brass is waiting for me so we can question our suspect." Grissom glanced at Sara sadly before leaving the room. He strode into his office, collecting his evidence and photos together. He looked at the bite impressions in front of him.

"The last piece of the puzzle."

He pulled the tooth out carefully and placed it inside the gaping mouth in front of him.

"Well well."

----------

I like that bit with Grissom and Brass looking at his decorations and then the comment "I like bugs but you don't call me crazy." "Not to your face." I just thought it would be something they would say.


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer - I do not own any part of CSI.

Chapter 10 – The truth will out

"Mr Potter, you told us the first time we arrived at your house that you saw the car that Jack's girlfriend drove parked in front of your drive the night he died." Brass stated.

"That's right."

"Then why did the rest of your neighbours say they hadn't seen it? And that we have eye witnesses that saw that same car parked elsewhere for the whole evening."

"Ok, maybe it wasn't there last night, it was there the night before. It's not really a big deal."

"It's the difference between wasting police time, perverting the course of justice and murder." Brass growled.

"No! You've got it wrong! I didn't mean to. Please believe me." Peter exclaimed and Brass looked at him with relief, knowing that the case was wrapped up.

"I know you didn't mean to kill him Peter." Grissom responded softly, causing both Brass and Peter to look at him in surprise. Peter sighed sadly.

"He was a really good friend; he was more like a brother than a neighbour." He looked down at his hands. Grissom placed photos of the evidence in front of Peter as he began to speak.

"I think you knew about Dana's affair and you were angry for the way she was treating Jack. It must have been hard when he didn't believe you, and I guess your friendship suffered?"

Peter nodded solemnly in response.

"He thought I was jealous 'cause he had a girlfriend and a relationship and I didn't."

"And what did you do?"

"I got proof. I saw that car one day when I was out shopping and she was there with her other guy." He lowered his eyes to concentrate on the table.

"I'm not proud of what I did, but it was the only way he'd believe me. I called Jack and asked him to meet with me to apologise for what went down before. Only, I went home." Peter's eyes filled with tears.

"He showed up thinking you were sorting everything out and instead you're not there and he sees his girlfriend with another man." Brass finished pointedly.

Peter wiped the tears away.

"I saw him get back and I phoned and got no answer but I could hear him crashing around his house. I knew he was drowning his sorrows. I thought he'd get over it. But"

"Dana showed up at his house; one of your neighbours said there was a commotion." Grissom finished and Peter yet again nodded.

"She was banging on the front door and calling him, but there was no response. I went out and told her to leave, that he didn't need a tramp like her hanging around. She started getting mouthy back, but then Jack opened his door and she went inside to talk to him. That was the night her car was parked outside. She eventually left in tears and I was gonna see if he was ok, but I thought I'd leave it till the morning, you know let him sleep it off."

It was Grissom's turn to nod.

"I went to work and tried to forget about it. When I got home, I couldn't hear anything. I just thought we would talk about it and get it sorted out." The tears fell again and he put his head in his hand for a few minutes.

"I went around there and at first he was being quiet and wasn't really saying much. Then he got louder and I realised he'd been drinking again. He started shouting at me, saying it was my entire fault that if I hadn't tricked him into meeting me then none of this would be happening. I told him that if I hadn't done it then he would have been in love with someone who didn't love him, and that he was an idiot to accept being treated that way." He mumbled, the tears mingling with his words.

"And that was when you fought. He sustained a few bruises and you lost one of your teeth." Grissom pointed at the photos of his tooth and of Jack's bruises which made Peter recoil.

"I pushed him to get him off me and he stumbled backwards and knocked his head on the shelf and then"

"He fell into the tree and made it fall over, trapping and squashing him underneath it. The marks we found on Jack's neck were made from the tinsel from the tree pressing on him" Grissom explained to Brass as Peter lost control of his voice and instead sobbed heavily.

"So instead of dialling 911 immediately and confessing to what you did, you called anonymously before going back to your house and acting like you didn't know what was going on. Why?" Brass asked.

"Because if you thought it was just an accident you wouldn't have looked into it."

"You wanted revenge for what Dana had done. So you made it look suspicious and then told us that she had been there the night he had died." Grissom informed.

"She had no idea what she had done and how much pain she had caused. And I was being blamed for it. I didn't wanna frame her; I just wanted you to interrogate her. I wanted her to suffer."

"She did Peter. But there were other people involved. You know that other guy? One of his daughters has just been murdered. And you've just added this on top. Do you think **he's** suffered enough?" Grissom asked sadly and Peter lowered his head crying quietly.

----------

That scene has had so many re-writes it's untrue!


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer – I do not own any part of CSI.

Chapter 11 – Putting two and two together

"Hey Nicky."

"Hey Cath. What you up to?"

"Just finished processing your Merc. I was gonna give these to Sara but she practically ran outta there and I didn't have a chance to give them to her." She handed him some sheets of paper in a sealed plastic bag.

"Makes for interesting reading." She smiled and walked away.

"Do you guys hide yourselves in cupboards or something?" Hodges asked, walking up to Nick.

"You see normally, I stay in the lab, page you, you come running and I reveal the test results that blow your case wide open. It's not my job to run around after you."

"And there's me thinking you'd be a bit more cheerful at Christmas."

"Completely overrated corporate holiday."

"Scrooge. So what are these results that will blow my case wide open?" Hodges shoved the papers into his hand and began to walk away. Nick read them.

"No." He said in disbelief. Hodges looked back and nodded with a smirk.

"Happy Christmas."

----------

Grissom explained the details of Peter's interrogation as he walked down the hall with Sara.

"Peter fought with Jack, pushed him into the shelf and then he fell into the tree and he was crushed to death. And all because Dana was cheating on Jack and Peter was just trying to be a good friend."

"Wow. So what will happen to Peter?"

"Well, he'll either be charged with manslaughter, self defence or perverting the course of justice. He hasn't got it easy."

"Still I suppose that's nothing compared to losing someone you care about. That's a punishment whether you killed them or not." Sara commented and Grissom glanced at her sideways.

"Sara did you get those pages I found?" Catherine called down the hall.

"Er, no."

"I told Nick to give them to you. Ugh, men!"

"I haven't seen him yet Catherine." Sara looked at Grissom who returned her puzzled gaze.

"I'd better go find Nick. You coming?"

"No, I've got somewhere I gotta be. I've gotta get my secret Santa gift."

She raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah well, just make sure you're back for the Christmas party. I don't want you messing up my secret Santa chain."

"Yes dear."

----------

"Finally! Cath said you've got some pages for me?"

"We've got a lot more than that." He handed her the bag which she inspected closely.

"Are those?" Nick nodded.

"Holly's missing journal entries."

She put a pair of latex gloves on and pulled them out of the bag carefully. She laid them out on the table. She skimmed over them.

"Oh my god, no wonder these were hidden. All of Ivy's entries were vague and she didn't mention many names. Holly writes about everything! I think we can safely say we have our killer." She looked at Nick.

"Not just that, we got the rest of our DNA results and prints back which tell an interesting story."

"And we need to speak to the person with the starring role."

----------

Yeah this is a really short chapter, but the next scene is really cool and well I wanted it to be a separate chapter!


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer – I do not own any part of CSI. Or the song "Driving home for Christmas", that's Chris Rea's and my all time favourite Christmas song (even before I wrote this chapter!)

Chapter 12 – All wrapped up

He leant back in his seat and put his hand to his forehead and rubbed it tiredly. He hadn't moved in 15 minutes and hadn't slept in 2 days. He put his hand back on the steering wheel and stretched his neck from side to side.

"For all of you stuck in that traffic that's backing up the I-15 at the moment" Grissom turned the sound up "we'll have more information for you within the next 15 minutes." He groaned.

"You're listening to LVFM, I'm David Palmer and now we've got a tune that's bound to put you in the festive spirit. This one's for the guys stuck on the I-15. This is Chris Rea and "Driving home for Christmas", here on LVFM."

The jaunty piano tune began to fill the car.

"I'm driving home for Christmas; oh I can't wait to see those faces. I'm driving home for Christmas yeah, well I'm moving down that line."

The car in front rolled forward and Grissom crawled forward then put the handbrake on.

"And it's been so long, but I will be there, I'll sing this song to pass the time away. Driving in my car"

"I'm driving home for Christmas." Grissom joined in. He wound the window down and tried to see how much further into the distance the traffic went.

"It's gonna take some time, but I'll get there. Top to toe in tailbacks, oh I got red lights all around. But soon they'll be a freeway yeah; get my feet on holy ground."

He looked across at the delicate paper bag lying on the passenger seat and smiled.

"So I'll sing for you, though you can't hear me, when I get through, and feel you near me. Driving home for Christmas; I'm driving home for Christmas."

He raised his eyes from the bag and noticed a young man in the next car, tapping his hands merrily.

"Driving home for Christmas, with a thousand memories. I take a look at the driver next to me, he's just the same."

A horn from behind snapped him back to reality and he put an apologetic hand up as he quickly caught up with the car in front that had left him a long way behind.

The car in front halted to a stop and he sighed, rubbing his forehead once again.

----------

"How are you feeling?" Sara asked softly.

"A lot better thanks. I'm sorry that I was rude to you earlier, but I was tired and upset. Seeing Holly like that was a big shock."

"Killing her must have been quite a shock as well." Ivy's eyes widened in shock.

"What?"

"We found your fingerprints on the bottle of pills that were used to sedate your sister. The holly that was used to choke her to death had your blood on it which was also found beside her body. We found out that Dana used the Merc and from that we found Holly's missing journal entries that you hid there and which had your fingerprints all over them. She explains in her entries how you were constantly picking on her and making insults and you even got your own friends to tease her and shout abuse at her at school." Sara stated.

"She was little Miss perfect. She couldn't do anything wrong in mum or dad's eyes. She always did well and she got praised. And what did I get? Nothing except a "you could have done better" or "you should be more like you sister". Do you know what it's like to always be told to stop being yourself and be more like someone else?" Ivy looked at Nick who shook his head.

"It's frustrating. When mom died, I thought dad would just accept me for me and things would be better. But they got worse, the amount of disappointed looks he gave me got bigger. Anyway, Holly started getting cosy with Dana, they talked a lot whenever she came round for one of her "work related meetings". We both knew dad was sleeping with her, but she was the one who came up to me and suggested we ask Dana to dinner for Christmas. Both her and dad were acting like they had forgotten mom and she had made me feel even more like an outsider. She had reached a new level of ruining my life."

"So you killed her?" She looked at them innocently and shrugged.

"Dad will have to love me now."

Sara's nostrils flared.

"You killed your sister over sibling rivalry. You could have just talked to people about how you felt. But no, you wanted to be individual. Well that ain't gonna happen 'cause where you're going, you're gonna just be a number and an orange jumpsuit like the rest of you inmates." Sara shook her head in disgust and left the room beckoning the office outside to enter the room.

----------

"Where are you?"

"Stuck on the I-15. How did your case go?" Grissom asked, moving in his chair to get more comfortable.

"Turns out it was twin sister Ivy that killed Holly." Sara sat in his office wishing he could be sitting there in front of her to talk to.

"The holly and the ivy." He remarked.

"What?"

"It's a Christmas poem. 'The holly and the ivy when they are both full grown, of all the trees that are in the wood the holly bears the crown; the holly bears a berry as red as any blood. And Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ to do poor sinners good'."

She frowned at the phone.

"More symbolism. Right, well I've gotta go, I've gotta get this Christmas party started. You will be here won't you?"

"I said I would. Look Sara I was…oh traffic's moving, gotta go!"

She put the phone down and tutted.

She walked into the staff room.

"Wow nice job Cath." Catherine appeared from behind the Christmas tree and grinned.

"Thanks." Sara looked around at the lights and decorations.

"And where are the people meant to sit?" Warrick joked as he stood in the doorway. Catherine hit him playfully on the arm.

"You! If you ever ask me to go to a crime scene in your place again remind me to say no!" Sara pouted.

"Tough case huh?" He asked Nick.

"We haven't slept for about 2 or 3 days." Warrick let out a low whistle.

"The fun has arrived!" Greg announced as he entered with Archie.

"Hey Archie. Brilliant you brought the stereo. Just put it over there. Yeah just move that outta the way." Catherine directed.

"Uh Cath?" Sara looked uneasy. "Where's the food? Tell me it's not in the fridge."

"It's not; Jim and Sofia are picking some stuff up." Sara breathed a sigh of relief.

"Uh, Warrick, did you bring any music?" Catherine looked at him sternly when he didn't respond. "I take that as a no."

"Hey, we can listen to my CD?" Greg suggested.

"No! If I have to listen to Power of Love one more time, I'll scream."

"It has other songs on it."

"Then why did we only listen to that one. Over and over again?"

"That'll be fine Greg." Sara smiled.

---------

These are my favourite chapters now, all the stuff with the Christmas party. The driving home for Christmas scene is one of my favs! -x-


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer – I do not own any part of CSI. Or "The Christmas song", I don't know who actually owns it, Christina Aguilera sings the version I have, but I mention it, so I'd better put it in the disclaimer.

Chapter 13 – Poison Ivy

Hodges picked up some food and eat it gingerly.

"Hey Sara, when you spoke to Grissom did he say how long he would be?" Everyone looked at her expectantly.

"No, he said he was stuck in traffic. No definite time, sorry."

"Why don't we start without him, he can join in when he gets here?" Brass suggested. They all took seats around the room.

"Ok, who should go first?" Sara asked.

"Well it was your idea. How about you?" Nick looked around. "Who has Sara's present?"

"Me." Archie handed her a small gift. She smiled at him and unwrapped it hastily.

"Oh wow, thanks Archie. Nickleback's album."

"It has the song "Far Away" on it. I always hear you singing it. You don't already have it do you?"

"No I don't. Thanks Arch. Ok, my present is for Ecklie."

"That's why you wanted me to come." She handed him the package.

"They're…"

"Nesting dolls. I just thought they would make a nice decoration in your house." Catherine gave a sideways look at her, and then saw someone arrive in the doorway.

"Gil! You made it!" They all gave him various greetings.

"Sorry, I got stuck in traffic; there had been a big accident. Tailbacks for miles."

Sara glanced to the doorway and frowned. She stood up and walked towards the door.

"Sara, where you going?" Greg asked. Grissom looked at her puzzled.

"There's just something I need to do. You all carry on; I'll be back in a minute." She walked out into the corridor.

Grissom shrugged his shoulders and sat down next to Catherine and Brass.

"What have I missed?"

"Miss Sidle."

"Mr Jenkins, what are you doing here?" She motioned to the bench and they sat down.

"I wanted to talk to you and Mr Stokes" he motioned to the party "I see he's a little busy." He smiled kindly, which she returned.

"I wanted to say thank you." Sara looked confused.

"I needed to know who killed my baby." He took a stuttered breath as the tears began to flow from his eyes.

--

He concentrated intently on what they were saying to each other, his back turned away slightly from the group.

"Oh Ecklie, uh thanks."

"What is it Sofia?"

"The Almanac of Sporks. 'All the information you ever wanted to know about your favourite spoon/fork combination utensil'. That's really…thoughtful."

Catherine sat down and whispered

"Didn't you buy that for Ecklie last year?" There was no response.

"Gil?" She squeezed his arm gently.

"Yeah sorry, you were saying?" His head had turned to face her but his body was still shifted around. She looked passed him, and then looked back. She patted his arm with a smile and focused on the party again.

--

"I can't quite believe Ivy killed Holly. They fought, but they always did. I just thought it was sisters being sisters. It was obviously more serious than that. A lot more serious. This is my fault, Holly was a girl who was talented but had trouble seeing that. Ivy knew her strengths and weaknesses. I guess I spent too much time praising Holly and boosting Holly's confidence that I forgot Ivy needed to hear it as well."

"It isn't your fault Charlie. Both of your daughters were adults and old enough to be responsible for their actions. Unfortunately Ivy took the wrong action and Holly suffered because of it."

--

David ripped the paper off eagerly.

"It's a…book."

"I'm sorry David, but we don't really talk much, I didn't know what you like." Sofia explained. Warrick read over his shoulder

"How to get a girlfriend in 10 days." He gave David a slap on the back. "Step one- get rid of all self help books that claim to achieve the impossible." He laughed and David gave a small laugh.

"Hm, and how long had you known Tina before you married her?" Nick joked.

"Ooh, getting bitchy now are we?" Warrick replied laughing.

--

A laugh erupted from the staff room. Sara turned to look, and then turned back.

"Miss Sidle?"

"Please, call me Sara."

"Sara, how do I get back from this? How do I carry on everyday? How do I forget?" Sara looked at him intently.

"Don't forget." She stared straight ahead. "If you forget then you're forgetting that Rachel, Holly, Ivy and even Dana ever mattered in your life. You carry on by taking one day at a time.  
Some days the pain will be unbearable and you will cry. But other days a song or a memory will trigger something in you and make you smile. Don't hide it, remember it. That's how you carry on." She lowered her head.

--

"Here you go Doc." David handed Doc Robbins a large parcel.

"What the hell did you get him David?" Catherine asked.

Al's eyes widened.

"You didn't? Not the one I pointed out in the catalogue?" He ripped the paper and gasped with excitement.

"It is!" He pulled it from the rest of the paper.

"Is that…" Greg began.

"You got him a leg?" Hodges asked.

"Prosthetic limb Hodges." Grissom corrected.

"How can you call that a limb? It's covered in tinsel and lights."

"Not just that." David looked at Al. "It's the deluxe edition." He felt along the limb between the tinsel and pushed a button.

"Chestnuts roasting on an open fire, Jack Frost nipping at your nose." The song emitted from a hidden speaker. Al grinned widely.

"It's perfect!"

Greg turned to Nick and Catherine.

"Jack Frost won't be nipping at anyone's nose this year." He chuckled. He looked at Grissom but was met with a stern gaze and a raised eyebrow. His chuckle stopped abruptly.

"Who's next?" He asked, changing the subject quickly.

----------

Ok, I'll explain the presents. Archie got the CD for Sara because there was this GSR video that I loved and the song used in it was "Far Away". The nesting dolls thing refers to the episode and her suspension by Ecklie. The book of Sporks is because they used to nickname Sofia "Spork" on a message board I used to go on. And the book and leg were just a bit of fun lol.


	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer – I don't own any part of CSI. I know the secret Santa isn't very secret, but I had loads of ideas for the presents they were gonna get each other and wanted to have their reactions to them.

Chapter 14 – Coming to terms

"Do you know what you're gonna do for Christmas?" She asked.

"Originally I was gonna spend it with Dana, but that's over. One of my college buddies had his third kid last month. They've invited me over, go and see my godson. But I haven't definitely decided yet."

"You know, they do Christmas dinners all up and down the strip if you fancy being with people but not, if you know what I mean." She gave a laugh and he nodded.

"Yeah I do. I'll see how I feel. What about you Sara, what are you gonna do for Christmas?" She was silent for a few seconds.

"I've not really thought about it."

"Not spending it with your partner?" She looked puzzled but amused.

"What makes you think I have a partner to spend Christmas with?"

"Well that gentleman up there has been watching you ever since you started talking to me." She subtly glanced to her right and saw Grissom's gaze. She smiled at Charlie.

"I assume he'll spend it with his mother."

He stood up and she followed.

"Miss Sidle, I've made a lot of assumptions in my life and look where it's got me. Don't make the same mistake." He smiled as fresh tears began to fall.

"Please pass on my thanks to Mr Stokes and thank you again Miss Sidle, it was nice to meet you. If only it had been in better circumstances." He put his hand over his mouth. Sara put her hand on his back comfortingly as her eyes began to well up as well. He took a deep breath, put his hand up as a goodbye and walked down the hall.

Her shoulders slumped forwards and used her fingers to try and brush away the fast falling tears.

--

Grissom sat up in his chair and shifted about, trying to get a better look at her.

Nick laughed.

"Wow a 'my first autopsy lab playset'. Gee thanks Doc!" He handed his small gift to Catherine.

"Don't go overboard or nothing Nicky." She opened it up and gasped. She turned the mug around which had a photo of Lindsey printed on one side and laughed.

"'Number 1 ex-supervisor. Rub it in my face why don't 'cha?" She joked. Nick smiled and looked to see where Sara had got to. He squinted into the distance and noticed her sitting alone, bent over.

"Hey, where you going Nick?"

"I left my Christmas CD in my locker. I'm just gonna go get it. Start this party properly." He laughed and walked out into the corridor.

Grissom's gaze followed Nick as he walked up to Sara and crouched in front of her.

--

"Hey, you ok?" He smiled but as she lifted her head, he looked concerned.

"What's wrong?"

She looked at him, her eyes slightly red and teary.

"Sometimes I hate this part of the job." She looked away to cover the upset and emotion bubbling underneath. Nick joined her on the bench and gently put his hand on her arm.

"You saw Mr Jenkins?"

She nodded.

"He, he wanted to thank us for finding out that Ivy murdered Holly." She paused and took a few slow breaths.

"It's just so unfair; he has lost everyone that he cares about. He was just focused on being grateful to us for doing our jobs." She lowered her head again, letting a few tears escape and drop to the floor.

"I don't know what to say to help you Sara."

"I mean, I know that our job ends when the evidence points us to the truth, Grissom's said it enough times. And I know that if I become too personally involved in my cases that eventually I'll burn out. But saying something doesn't make it any easier to do." She brushed her hair out of her eyes and fresh tears began to fall. She sobbed quietly.

Nick watched her sadly and then gently put his arm around her.

--

"You should go and talk to her." Grissom jumped slightly and turned to see Catherine once again watching over his shoulder.

"Nick's with her. She'll be fine. What makes you think I'll be any help anyway?" She rolled her eyes, which he didn't notice.

"Because you know, if she has a problem she normally talks to you about it."

"Not really."

"Maybe she talks and you just don't listen."

"What?" He asked half heartedly, his back turned again.

"Precisely."

--

"You and Charlie Jenkins are two different people Sara. He might be alone. But you're not." She looked at him.

"Hey, you know Greg's got your back!" She laughed and nodded.

"We all have." He stood up and stretched.

"I think we'd better get back to this party. You organised this secret Santa and you're missing it all. Doc Robbins got a festive leg from David!"

She smiled and put her arm on Nick's shoulder.

"Thanks Nick." He smiled.

"I've gotta grab my CD before Cath snaps Greg's in half."

"I'm gonna go and freshen up. I'll be there in a minute."

He gave a nod, ran into the locker room and jogged back to the party.

----------

Best place to finish the chapter, the next bit's quite long. And funny!


	15. Chapter 15

Disclaimer – I do not own any part of CSI. Or the song "Merry Christmas Everyone", that's Shakin' Stevens. You gotta love those classic cheesy Christmas songs; it's what Xmas is all about!

Chapter 15 – Santa baby

"Well I'm going; I've got work to do." Ecklie announced.

"Aw already?" Greg asked. Ecklie replied with an unimpressed look.

"Goodnight Gil."

"Conrad." He walked to the door and bumped into Sara.

"Thank you for your…gift."

"You're welcome." She replied cheerily. "Right where are we up to?" Greg smiled as she entered and took a seat between him and Warrick. Grissom met her gaze and smiled at her which she returned.

"My turn. Here you go Warrick." Cath passed it over. Warrick opened it and was silent. David read over his shoulder.

"How to overcome gambling addictions and rushed marriages to short term girlfriends. What were you saying about self help books?" David smiled.

"I don't know if it has any relevance at all, it just looked interesting." Catherine commented.

"Ok Warrick why don't you give your gift?" Sara kept it going, changing the subject.

Brass opened his 100 greatest cop jokes and limericks book with a grin. He flicked through and began to read aloud.

"There once was a cop who wasn't so fast, he would spend all day sitting on his big fat…"

"BRASS! Your turn." Sara interjected and he chuckled. He handed a large parcel to Grissom by his side.

"This is heavy Jim, you bought me bricks?" Grissom undid the paper and sat in stunned silence. He gave a laugh of disbelief.

"What is it?" Doc Robbins asked.

"The complete illustrated works of Shakespeare." He looked at Brass.

"I've talked about this for years."

"Yeah I bought it to shut you up!" Brass laughed.

"It was just a small thank you for what you did for me." Brass became choked up and Grissom put his hand on his back.

"Anyone would have done the same. Thanks Jim." Sara looked at him and noticed that he was also slightly choked up.

"Grissom, your turn." She said gently.

"Here you go Greg." Greg looked uncertain as he accepted the present.

"Before I open this, it's not a pig in formaldehyde or some weird species of bug is it? 'Cause that's not cool."

"Just open it Greg!" He peeled back the wrapping.

"Headphones."

"Yeah I noticed your stereo here doesn't have any." Greg gave a half hearted smile.

"Oh and Ecklie said you can come back out in the field again." Greg's eyes lit up and he gave a wide grin.

"Here you go Hodges."

"He he, very funny 'classic disco anthems, set your robot moves to stun'."

Sara chuckled quietly and Warrick joined in. Eventually the room erupted with laughter.

"And last but not least, Archie!" Sara smiled, trying hard to stop laughing.

"Re-writable CDs. Uh thanks Hodges. Well I'd better get going, some of us have still gotta work." Hodges joined him and gave a small wave to the group. Nick got up and turned the music up louder.

"Come on y'all, round of applause to Sara for organising the secret Santa." He clapped and they all joined in. She gave a mock bow.

"Oh I forgot. Here you go Sara." Grissom handed her a magazine.

"Hang on, hang on. Your secret Santa was…" Cath went through the chain in her head "Greg! That's not fair!"

"Oh it's not a present. I mentioned an article in a magazine the other day and I finally remembered to bring it in for her."

"Oh right yeah, applied aerodynamics in forensic science." She replied, taking it from him. The group gave a collective 'oh' and began to clear some space for dancing.

"The article is in the middle pages." He looked at her and raised his eyebrows slightly. She opened the magazine and found a silver necklace with a purple butterfly lying inside.

"Oh thanks, I'll have a proper look at it later." She gave a smile.

"Snow is falling, all around me children playing, having fun. 'Tis the season, for love and understanding, merry Christmas everyone." Shakin' Stevens boomed out of the stereo.

"Sara, I wanted to ask you something. Would you…"

"Hey Sara! Wanna dance?" Greg interrupted and Grissom turned to Doc Robbins.

"Sure."

Grissom watched out of the corner of his eye as she messed around with Greg on the makeshift dance floor. Warrick soon joined them and she couldn't stop laughing. He smiled to himself and concentrated back on Doc Robbins. David walked up to Sofia.

"Do you um wanna dance? You know with the others, not like by ourselves." She smiled.

"Ok." Nick and Catherine also joined the group and soon Sara was switching between Nick, Warrick, Greg and David.

Brass joined Grissom.

"Looking at that lot is making me feel old."

Grissom gave a small laugh.

"Not that you're longing to join them or anything?"

"No, no. You?"

"Course not." Grissom looked at Brass and they shared a smile.

"Hey the Doc's joined 'em!" Brass pointed as Doc Robbins danced across the room using his new leg as an electric guitar. Catherine walked up to them.

"Come on you two! I want a dance off each of you."

"Oh all right if you insist." Brass replied immediately. She grabbed each of their hands and dragged them across the room.

----------

I loved the secret Santa bit, I came up with the idea of that before the rest of the story, it was just gonna be the Xmas party originally! Lol, Doc Robbins and his festive leg bit still makes me laugh. Be forewarned, the next chapter is the last.


	16. Chapter 16

Disclaimer – I do not own any part of CSI. I also mention the song names or part lyrics of these songs with their respective artists (well the versions I know) which I also don't own:

-Step into Christmas- Elton John

-Have yourself a merry little Christmas- Luther Vandross

-Merry Xmas Everybody-Slade

-The reference Tiny Tim

-The word Elvis (I know it's extreme, but I'm saving my butt!)

Chapter 16 – Place your bets

He had just finished dancing with Catherine and as he turned around Grissom bumped into Sara.

"Do you wanna dance?"

She smiled warmly.

"Yeah."

As they began to dance, 'Step into Christmas' came to an end. The slow soulful voice of Luther Vandross filled the room.

"Have yourself a merry little Christmas, let you heart be light. From now on our troubles will be out of sight." They looked at each other, unsure of how to react. He took Sara's hand and put the other around her waist. She had to force herself not to stand there grinning. As they rotated gently, Catherine and Warrick and Sofia and David joined them.

"I really like the necklace." She whispered. "It was just difficult to say anything with everyone watching."

"There was something I wanted to ask you Sara." She stopped moving for a second, but no-one noticed. She began to dance again.

"Would you like to come for Christmas dinner at my mother's house?"

Her eyes widened.

"Really? Are you sure?"

"Yeah, she'd like to meet you."

"And what about you?"

"I'd like you to come."

"On one condition." He looked at her doubtfully.

"You teach me some sign language beforehand." He gave a smile which he quickly suppressed.

--

Catherine picked up her drink and sipped it slowly. She watched them talking to each other and smiled.

"You finally listened."

Warrick sat down exhaustedly.

"Aw poor Warrick, are you tired?" She asked in a baby voice and he nodded.

"Yeah well you didn't do overtime or do a double shift like the rest of us, so you don't get any sympathy from me!" She laughed and he sighed.

"Thanks." He mumbled, crossing his arms.

Nick and Greg arrived, Greg doing an impression of a robot and Nick laughing.

"It's true, I saw him practising in the toilet." Greg laughed and Catherine raised her eyebrow.

"Do I even wanna know what you're talking about?"

"Greg walked into the toilet the other day and saw Hodges doing a full Elvis impression. He even had the hip wiggling down. No idea why he'd be doing that, but he didn't even stick around for the dancing tonight." Nick commented grinning.

"He was probably embarrassed." Greg walked across and peered over Catherine's shoulder to see what she was looking at.

"Ten dollars says they kiss."

"Greg!"

"Twenty dollars."

"Nick!" She replied shocked.

"You know guys, it's only worth betting on something with proper odds. And you need to bet against each other. Otherwise you'll both win and it'll be pointless. And, you gotta bet on something that's not a dead cert, it's no fun otherwise." Warrick commented. He picked up his book and opened it. He peered over the top.

"Not that I'm encouraging you or anything."

"Yeah Nick, what a stupid idea!" Greg rolled his eyes and walked over to the stereo.

"Come on Cath, what d'ya reckon? Mistletoe at midnight?" Nick stood close to her and whispered conspiratorially.

"You and me? No chance."

Nick laughed sarcastically.

"God bless us every one." Greg laughed, impersonating Tiny Tim as he turned the volume up even louder.

"So here it is merry Christmas everybody's having fun. Look to the future now it's only just beguuun."

"Merry Christmas Sara."

"Merry Christmas Grissom."

----------

And there you have it gang! I only have a few things to say- Hope you enjoyed it, more stories to come in the future as always and have a great Christmas/New Year whatever you're doing! –x-


End file.
